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Category Archives: VMworld

Data center virtualization continues to receive attention in enterprise organizations that want to reduce IT costs and create a more flexible, efficient, and automated applications workload environment.

As an IT organization, you must contend with many different software and hardware components. And not only do you have to manage a lot of different components, you also face the challenge of putting them together!

To solve this complex challenge, VMware Validated Designs (VVDs) provide guidance and speed up the process of building a modern, automated Software-Defined Data Center.

So, exactly what are VMware Validated Designs?

They are architectures and designs created and validated by VMware and data center experts.

They encompass the entire set of VMware’s Software-Defined Data Center products.

They are standardized and streamlined designs for different deployment scenarios and a broad set of use cases.

Marco Righini, from Intel, and I were able to access early content and test it on a real data center, and we would like to share our experience with you.

Abstract: The session presents the work done during the building of VVD using the Intel Lab in Pisa, Italy. This collaborative team effort between local VMware PSOs and Intel tested and built an entire lab from scratch, using the VVD reference architecture. The challenges of the VVD architecture are addressed, along with how it helped in the fast delivery an automated cloud.

Andrea Siviero is an ten-year veteran of VMware and a senior solutions architect member of Professional Services Engineering (PSE) for the Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC), a part of the Global Technical Solutions (GTS) team. Prior to PSE, Andrea spent three years as pre-sales system engineer and three years as a post-sales consultant architect for cloud computing and desktop virtualization solutions focusing on very large and complex deployments, especially for service providers in the finance and telco sectors.

It is no secret that IT is in constant evolution. IT trends such as Cloud Adoption, Distributed Applications, Micro-Services or Internet of Things have emerged over the last years.

Nevertheless, the focus is still on applications and on how they compute and deliver data to consumers. Whether their role is to generate revenue, pilot industries, logistics, health or even your programmable thermostat; top level goals of organizations are still security, agility and operational efficiency, everything else associated with the applications has changed:

Threats have become more advanced and persistent.

Users now access the data center from devices and locations that represent significant challenges.

Application architectures are now more widely distributed and more dynamic than ever before.

Infrastructure changes have evolved with the convergence of resources and questions around public cloud offerings.

VMware NSX is a perfect fit to address these concerns from the network and security standpoint. NSX reproduce all Network & Security services of Data Centers in logical space for best speed/agility and a deeper security.

Abstract: Applications are everywhere and increasingly more complex. They require much more than switching and routing on the network side. Clouds should be able to host any applications, including the complex ones. This session will discuss the concepts for designing and operating NSX network services such as firewalling, load balancing, and VPN. We will examine and explain how you can better consume those services by automating them, or by using other mechanisms such as NSX API. After this session, you will leave with a better understanding of how NSX Network and Security services work, and how to leverage them to better support your applications.

Romain Decker is a Senior Solutions Architect member of Professional Services Engineering (PSE) for the Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) portfolio – a part of the Global Technical & Professional Solutions (GTPS) team.

With a week to go to VMworld US, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some amazing sessions we have in store for those of you with an interest in server-based computing. Whether you’ve got to roll-up your sleeves and start migrating users off your XenApp 5.0 server soon but don’t know where to start, or maybe you’re a VMware vSphere expert and need some tips on ensuring your architecture includes best practice for VMware Horizon 6 hosted apps – there will be something for everyone.

We’ll cover everything you need to know for a seamless migration from Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop onto Horizon 6, including where to start and what to assess up front, the tools available to speed things up, and pitfalls to avoid to make sure you are successful. We’ll also run through a comparison of the various Citrix components in relation to Horizon 6 – great for those of you with years of Citrix experience to get a better understanding of how things line up.

For this panel discussion we have lined up a group of experts with decades of real-world EUC experience between them, which should make for a lively and interesting discussion. The panel will discuss how technologies such as UEM, App Volumes, ThinApp and solutions from F5 can be used to deliver the next generation of hosted applications and virtual desktops, whether you are deploying VMware Horizon or simply enhancing your existing XenApp infrastructure.

And if you want to explore things further or discuss your Server-Based Computing project in greater detail, come and have a chat with the team at the Professional Services Demo Station between 12–4 PM Wednesday.

See you at VMworld 2015 next week!

Nick has over 17 years experience of both architecting and delivering successful enterprise class solutions. He remains at the forefront of emerging EUC and virtualization technologies and how they can be best used for solving real business problems. Currently Nick is part of the global EUC Professional Services Engineering team developing new and emerging solutions and services for VMware.

Have you noticed the ever-changing VMware vSphere architecture with the introduction of new services and technologies? If you answered yes, you should already know that the architectural configuration details in an environment become instrumentally important to the Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC). The foundation of the SDDC starts with vSphere; if architected correctly it will be much more than a platform for the environment.

At VMworld in San Francisco I will discuss lessons learned from our VMware Professional Services team. This discussion will bring real-world experience to light so that common issues can be addressed prior to the deployment of the solution, rather than after the fact.

Here is an example of what we will dive into: There are different architectures for the Platform Services Controller, from an embedded node to a maximum-sized configuration, as shown in the figure below.

To be able to use Enhanced Linked Mode however, it is important to understand the correct and supported architectures that allow for a design to be configured in a supported manner. This will ensure that the chances of a failure are minimized from the beginning.

Jonathan McDonald is a Technical Solutions Architect for the Professional Services Engineering team. He currently specializes in developing architecture designs for core Virtualization, and Software-Defined Storage, as well as providing best practices for upgrading and health checks for vSphere environments.

This is the first in a series of previews of our VMware Professional Services speaking sessions at VMworld 2015 US starting August 30th in San Francisco. Our Technical Architects will present “deep-dive” sessions in their areas of expertise. Read these previews, register early and enjoy.

This is an update to last year’s Virtual SAN proof-of-concept (POC) talk. A lot has changed in the last year, and the idea of this session is to fill you in on all the potential “gotchas” you might encounter when trying to evaluate VMware Virtual SAN.

Cormac Hogan, Corporate Storage Architect, and Julienne Pham, Technical Solution Architect of VMware, will cover everything you need to know, including how to conduct various failure scenarios, and get the best performance. Thinking about deploying Virtual SAN? Then this session is for you.

This session will share key tips on how to conduct a successful Virtual SAN proof-of-concept. It will show you how to correctly and properly set up a Virtual SAN environment (hosts, storage and networking), verify it is operating correctly, and then show you how to test the Virtual SAN full functionality. This session will also highlight how to verify that VM Storage Policies are working correctly, as they are an integral part of SDS and Virtual SAN.

We will also discuss how a Virtual SAN handles failures, and how to test if it is handling events correctly. In addition, it will cover numerous monitoring tools that can be used during a POC, such as the Ruby vSphere Console, VSAN, Observer Web-based analysis tools, and the new Virtual SAN Health Service plug-in. After attending this session, you will be empowered to implement your own Virtual SAN POC.

Learn more at VMworld 2015 US in San Francisco

STO4572: Successful Virtual SAN Evaluation/Proof-Of-Concepts

Monday, Aug. 31, 8:30 – 9:30 AM

Speakers:

Cormac Hogan, Corporate Storage Architect, VMware

Julienne Pham, Technical Solution Architect, VMware

Julienne Pham is a Technical Solution Architect for the Professional Services Engineering team. She is specialised on SRM and core storage. Her focus is on VIO and BCDR space.

VMworld in San Francisco is approaching very quickly. It’s a must-attend event for VMware customers, but there is a lot to take in, so I thought I would take a few minutes to highlight some key activities led by my team of End User Computing (EUC) consultants and architects that you won’t want to miss.

Our organization is called Professional Services Engineering (PSE) and is part of the Global Technical and Professional Services Organization. As VMware’s EUC subject matter experts, our team works with some of our largest EUC customers worldwide. From our experiences with these large organizations, our team is responsible for creating VMware’s EUC methodologies, which are then leveraged by our global EUC professional services organization.

VMworld Sessions Delivered by the PSE Team:

Managing end-user profiles can be challenging, and often the bane of a desktop administrator’s existence. To the rescue comes VMware’s User Environment Manager. In this session, attendees will be provided with a deep dive into UEM, including an architectural overview, available settings and configurations, and user environment management options. The session will also outline UEM deployment considerations and best practices, as well as discuss how to integrate UEM into a Horizon 6 environment. Attendees will even learn how UEM can be used to manage physical desktops.

VMware continues to innovate and evolve our EUC products with the introduction of Hosted Applications with Horizon 6, VMware UEM, App Volumes and Workspace. Join our experienced experts for a panel discussion on how VMware technologies can be used to support your existing Server Based Computing (SBC) infrastructure or move away from it all together onto a platform that addresses what people want, not just what a published application needs.

VMware Horizon is a proven desktop virtualization solution that has been deployed around the world. Balancing the performance and cost of a storage solution for Horizon can be difficult and affects the overall return on investment. VMware Virtual SAN has provided architects with a new weapon in the battle for desktop virtualization. VSAN allows architects to design a low-cost, high-performance hybrid solution of solid-state and spinning disks, or go all-flash for ultimate desktop performance. Learn from two Double VCDXs on how to go about architecting your Horizon on VSAN solution to ensure it will provide the levels of performance your users need, with management simplicity that will keep your administrators happy and a cost that will ensure your project will be a success.

Are you planning a migration from Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop to VMware Horizon? Or simply interested in learning how to do it? This is the session for you! Come hear from the architects of VMware’s Citrix migration strategies and services as they break down different approaches to migration using real-world case studies. We will dive deep into how to evaluate the state of the Citrix environment, assess system requirements, design the Horizon infrastructure, and then plan and perform the migration. By the end of the session you will know all the best practices, tips, tricks and tools available to make sure your migration from Citrix to VMware Horizon is a complete success!

VMworld Booth in the Solutions Exchange

We can also be found at the Professional Services demo station in the VMware booth Wednesday from 12–4 PM. Come by with your EUC questions or just discuss any EUC solutions you are looking to implement in your organization. I will be there along with my colleague Nick Jeffries.

VMworld Hands On Labs

Finally, my colleague Jack McMichaels and I will both be working in the VMworld Hands On Labs this year. The Hands On Labs are a great way to come and try all of the VMware technologies. If you have never attended a Hands On Lab at VMworld then I would highly encourage you to come and give them a go. They are a great way to learn if you have an hour or two to spare in your agenda.

See you in San Francisco!

Dale is a Senior Solutions Architect and member of the CTO Ambassadors. Dale focuses in the End User Compute space, where Dale has become a subject matter expert in a number of the VMware products. Dale has more than 20 years experience working in IT having started his career in Northern England before moving the Spain and finally the USA. Dale currently hold a number of certifications including VCP-DV, VCP-DT, VCAP-DTD and VCAP-DTA.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since 23,000 forward-thinking IT professionals converged in San Francisco for VMworld 2013. With VMworld Barcelona just around the corner, we asked a few of our consultants to reflect back on highlights from San Francisco and offer advice for how to get the most out of the event.

What nugget of information from VMworld did you take back to your work?

“Pay special attention to NSX and vSAN because VMware is changing the way IT delivers networking and storage services.” –Jung Hwang

“Automating SDDC is now more than an idea—it’s a reality. It has a huge impact on the Business Critical Applications space.” –David Gallant

“Almost anything can now be virtualized: monster VMs are now commonplace; systems that previously required an entire Unix platform to run can now be accommodated in a single Virtual Machine on VMware vSphere 5.x.” –Michael Webster Continue reading →

Don’t forget to stop by the Professional Services booth at VMworldtoday from 4:15–5pm for our Meet the Bloggers event. Get in-person answers to all your pressing IT questions and meet the consultants and architects behind this blog and the VMware Accelerate Blog.

If you can’t join us in San Francisco, we hope you’ll still join us here on the VMware Consulting Blog. We have lots of great posts scheduled for the coming months, including several by new bloggers. You won’t want to miss them!

Today’s software-defined data center (SDDC) is helping IT organizations meet business demands by automating and managing a growing range of data center functions, freeing up resources for new projects that support IT as a service.

From talking to VMware customers, we know that up to 80% of deployment time has nothing to do with physical equipment—it’s all about the orchestration between the technology, the people and the migration process. Thus, implementing an SDDC architecture goes beyond virtualized computing to a fully integrated, highly automated IT environment.

You can see exactly how the VMware Professional Services team designed and built an SDDC environment based on the vCloud Enterprise product suite and the opportunities it presents during our hands-on demo at VMworld San Francisco this week. Stop by the VMworld Professional Services booth to have one of our skilled architects walk you through the data center of the future.

The SDDC hands-on demo will include:

A self service catalog based on vCloud Automation Center where users can provision different types of systems, including small, medium, and large environments, with a built-in costing model. With a couple of clicks, deploy Windows and Linux machines, along with a multi-tier application that provides a shopping cart interface for web servers, fully backed by network load balancing, as well as a database with communication networking built in.

A fully integrated management interface where administrators can easily determine which systems are available to users and automatically apply different approval workflows. Admins can also decide what kind of networking is put in place, including low, medium, and high security levels. All of the automation and orchestration of the environment was achieved by integrating vCenter Automation Center with vCenter Orchestrator.

A workflow manager employing vCenter Orchestrator, the single workflow engine running behind the VMware live demo. When a system, network, or group is requested, vCenter Orchestrator runs predefined workflow components, such as additional installations. Once the system has been deployed, it’s also dynamically entered into the vCenter Operations Manager environment, purpose-built for the software-defined data center.

The vCenter Operations management environment, which greatly improves on traditional green, yellow, red health ratings. In addition to dynamically managing virtual environments, it provides risk and trending information, allowing administrators to track the health of the environment, but also to see opportunities for future failures. Instead of today’s traditional “reactive” environments, a software-defined data center enables a proactive environment where administrators can fix problems before they occur by monitoring the health of the entire stack, not just the server interface.

The vCenter Configuration Manager, which examines the environment where a system is being deployed to determine if it is following predefined compliance and security rules. In addition, the virtualized networking environment allows administrators to look into all the security and networking capabilities offered by VMware to automate rule creation and to monitor compliance without having to chase down and scan different machines.

For details on how these products are deployed and integrated, contact VMware Professional Services or stop by and talk with our consultants and architects at our VMworld booth.

John Steiner is Chief Architect for VMware Professional Services. Since joining VMware in 2007 and VMware Accelerate Advisory Services in 2010, Steiner has pioneered the business solutions architect delivery model through the creation of architectural blueprints and multiyear roadmaps that help customers achieve maximum business value, data center efficiencies, cost reductions and ROI objectives.

As a business solutions architect for VMware Accelerate Advisory Services, Eric Ledyard utilizes the broad VMware portfolio and his own experience to design strategic roadmaps for transformation that lead organizations to their goals of building highly efficient IT-as-a-service environments.

Shaun Millin has worked at VMware for more than a year with the Integration Automation Team, designing and delivering custom IaaS and PaaS solutions. Shaun has extensive knowledge in data center virtualization, orchestration, and VMware API scripting.

Employees today have more information available—and more ways to access that information—than ever before. No longer does a single device (whether it’s a laptop, a tablet or a traditional desktop computer) meet the needs of today’s workforce. Your goals haven’t changed: to deliver a secure, manageable and efficient end user computing environment to the enterprise. Now you just have to do that while managing a menagerie of devices.

VMware products enable companies to virtualize, simplify and control their end-user computing environments; but to be effective, these solutions must integrate with a complex, multifaceted and ever-changing business environment. To design and deploy these solutions correctly, you must be able to make this complex ecosystem of various devices and systems work together seamlessly.

At VMworld San Francisco, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the leading architects of blueprints for exactly this kind of modern mobile enterprise—the VMware Professional Services EUC architects. Stop by the VMworld Professional Services booth to see an eye-catching iPad demo, providing an inside look at four end-user computing blueprints and a deeper appreciation for the technical and architectural decisions required for a high-performing EUC solution.

Learn about:

AlwaysOn Point of Care. Drawing on our healthcare industry experience, we integrate VMware technologies with the your environment’s third-party systems and optimize your IT landscape to meet your needs. By weaving together a variety of devices—from desktops to physician tablets and remote smartphones—VMware provides a single-sign-on, seamless user experience across your organization. We deploy an infrastructure that provides the high availability essential in healthcare environments, along with the security needed to protect patient privacy and ensure regulatory compliance.

Mobile Secure Workplace. We take an integrated approach to mobile technology, bringing together and optimizing VMware products with third-party technologies while leveraging your existing systems. While building security into your architecture, we also focus on device independence and flexibility, so your infrastructure won’t be left behind by rapidly advancing mobile technology.

Branch Office Desktop. We conduct a thorough assessment of your central and branch-office IT landscape. We look at storage and how it will be affected by the way images and user personas are managed, as well network topology, to understand issues such as WAN availability, application strategy and the number of endpoints that need to be supported.

Business Process Desktop. We analyze workflows to understand your business requirements, then design an architecture that provides seamless integration of voice and digital channels, along with consistent network performance and availability. Because flexibility is especially important in these operations, we deliver a blueprint for a repeatable deployment process that lets you scale operations up and down quickly to stay in step with changing business demand.

VMware Professional Services can help you design and deploy an end-user solution that is secure, reliable, and right for your business—and do it rapidly while minimizing risk and maximizing your return on investment. Come visit us at VMworld to see how!